Faust & Pausch – Two New Mentors

Let’s plunge ourselves into the roar of time, the whirl of accident; may pain and pleasure, success and failure, shift as they will — it’s only action that can make a man. – Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Randy Pausch, the Carnegie Mellon professor, gave his last lecture entitled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” 10 months before succumbing to cancer.  He talked about brick walls put in your path to test your will to overcome and show that you really wanted something.  As Faust says, the action is what makes the man (or woman.)

The ability to act…to make a mark.  To leave a legacy that is honorable and true…that speaks to those that follow in one’s wake.  For one that has always felt less of themselves, this is undoubtedly a daunting task.  But shedding the chrysalis of self-doubt and inferior feelings to emerge winged and soaring in the world above CAN happen.  It requires daily affirmation (not this kind…)

But dispelling those feelings of doubt can lead to great things.  And there is never any better time then the present.

Pausch talks about creativity and making dreams happen using outside the box type thinking.  There are always going to be brick walls in the way.  But perhaps overcoming those obstacles are the character-building bio-cultural events that build TRUE character.  It’s not galloping along with the herd hoping that you, all of a sudden, are the weak, the sick, or the old that is doomed to the lioness’ trap.

I wonder how Faust would react to scores of sarcastic sheep brought up on re-tread movies and steady diets of game shows and reality television.  WHERE HAS THE CREATIVITY AND ACTION GONE

I worry about my family – those who have sacrificed for me.  Can we act on the environmental issues that keep unfolding exponentially in front of us?  Can we devise creative solutions to eliminate the financial madness whose dark curtain slowly envelops and suffocates those that have worked hard to simply live?

And then I read Faust.  And I see Pausch’s last lecture on public television.  And there is comfort.  There are people who “get it.”  But is it enough?  Do the right people have that character?  Do the people that support them have the character to make the right decisions?  AM I SCREAMING MY HANDS OFF FOR NOTHING?

Take a look at the last lecture if you haven’t seen it before…

Let’s take some creative action…find our niche…and make it count.

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Tags: Action, Creativity, Faust, Randy Pausch, Stewart Smalley